Trump’s new policy makes it harder for immigrants to get green cards
Under a new policy announced by the Trump administration, DHS is telling green card applicants that they must return to their home countries to apply.
America’s largest cities were recovering from post-pandemic population declines. But the post-COVID-19 recovery in many large cities will stall or reverse in 2025, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau.
Large cities lost population during the pandemic, with nearly half of America’s largest cities reporting fewer residents in 2022 than in 2020. By 2024, two-thirds of these cities will begin to add residents again. However, in 2025, almost all residents showed a decline in momentum, and many residents recorded losses again.
Experts believe much of this is due to one major factor: a sharp decline in net international migration.
“Internal immigration is sort of zero-sum. Some places lose population, some places gain. But immigration is more widespread across the country, which is why the decline could be more widespread,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.
New York City lost more than 388,000 residents, or about 4.5% of its population, from 2020 to 2022, but the city regained more than half of its residents over the next two years. However, the recovery was short-lived. Although the city remains the most populous city in the United States, it recorded the nation’s largest population decline of more than 12,000 people from 2024 to 2025.
Los Angeles will lose nearly 4,000 residents in 2025, and Boston will lose more than 1,000 residents compared to a year ago. These are statistically flat declines in a city that was recovering from a pandemic-era population exodus.
While these cities are recovering, others have not recovered at all. Memphis, Tennessee, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and St. Louis, Missouri all experienced population declines due to the coronavirus pandemic and continue to lose residents every year.
The slowdown extends far beyond these beleaguered subways. The U.S. population grew by 1.8 million people, or 0.5%, the slowest growth rate since the pandemic, according to Census Bureau data that estimates population change from July 1, 2024 to July 1, 2025.
Current strict immigration policies are reducing the influx of immigrants that many large cities have long relied on to offset internal out-migration and aging populations. Frey added that all 56 major metropolitan areas with populations of more than 1 million people are seeing declines in immigration.
In addition to immigration trends, the high cost of living in large cities is driving residents to move to the suburbs. Population growth in medium-sized cities remained relatively stable, according to census data, and some medium-sized cities at the edges of metropolitan areas grew faster than the metropolitan areas themselves.
For example, the New York state village of Port Chester saw its population grow by 4.1%, while its closest metropolitan city, New York City, experienced a 0.1% decline.
Matt Erickson, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, said in the latest population report released May 14 that “mid-sized cities have discovered a ‘Goldilocks zone’ where a combination of domestic and international migration and new housing helps prevent the growth slowdown seen in small towns and large urban centers.”
Similar changes were seen in several other major cities. Celina, Texas, about 40 miles from Dallas, is a mid-sized city with a population of more than 64,000, and its population grew by 25%, while Dallas’ population decreased by 0.1%.
The slowdown means that about one-third of America’s largest cities now have fewer residents than they did five years ago, according to a USA TODAY analysis of population estimates.
“These are some of the most expensive places to live,” David Beer, director of migration studies at the Cato Institute, said of the coastal metropolises. “People are moving to more affordable and better places to live.”
The idea of leaving a metropolitan area to buy a home and settle in the suburbs is nothing new. The pandemic has reinforced these migration trends.
“When families move to the suburbs, that in itself can create a momentum. They follow where their friends and family go. Many of these trends are self-reinforcing once they start happening at scale,” Beer said.
What is happening now may be just the beginning.
Beer warned that current census estimates only capture part of the impact of recent immigration policies under President Donald Trump’s administration. Beer said an even steeper decline was expected when next year’s figures, covering July 2025 to July 2026, are released.
Immigration plays a key role in sustaining population growth in many large U.S. cities, Frey and Brookings said. Without this influx, cities that already rely on immigration to offset internal out-migration may struggle to sustain growth in total population, child population, and working-age population.
“Immigration not only increases the size of the population, it also contributes to making it younger,” he says. “Long-term declines in immigration could have an impact on the age structure and thus the number of births, but it would take several years for this to appear.”
